The Animal Experimentation Scandal: An Audit of the 2005 National Institutes of Health
Funding of Animal Experimentation
By Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN

Research Duplication

The finding of a significant increase in the number of grants funded
by the agencies which are catalogued in the CRISP system leads to
several questions. Perhaps the most important of these questions deals
with the issue of duplication. Are all of these research projects
necessary? Are they unique and innovative? Are any of these grants
redundant? Are those researchers who are being trusted by the NIH et al
to perform medical research defrauding the American taxpayer?

While it is not within the scope of this audit to fully answer
questions of this nature, certain conclusions can be drawn from a
relatively limited number of additional searches that have been run
using the CRISP system. Eight species were used to examine addiction
experimentation: rats, mice guinea pigs, rabbits, pigeons, macaque
monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and baboons (chosen to illustrate the range
of species used). The results of these searches were very disturbing.
There are currently (for fiscal 2005) 1200 separate projects (costing a
potential $495,600,000 per year) that examine addiction experiments in
these species. 1100 (92%) of these projects are centered in just three
species – rats, mice and macaque monkeys. Clearly, there is a high level
of duplication in this area.

778 projects study neural information processing, an even more
specialized area, in 11 species costing an estimated $321,314,000.
Again, the majority of experiments (644 or 83%) are done in only three
species – rats, mice & macaque monkeys.

Several questions arise from these findings? Are these studies based
on science or finance? Are these species used chosen for scientific
reasons or simply for convenience? Why are we spending almost ½ billion
per year making drug addicts out of animals when humans often cannot
find treatment programs for lack of federal funding? Details of these
duplication issues are contained in Appendix B.

Duplicative areas of experimentation were examined at many of the top
30 facilities (see the list below), and it is a major concern. In only
these two areas of duplicative research, addiction and neural
information processing, many projects are underway at the top 30 labs.
The top facilities for duplication which also made the top 30 list are:

Facility

# Projects in two
areas of duplication

Cost of Duplication

Emory

18

$7.4 million

Vanderbilt

17

$7 million

Johns Hopkins
University

15

$6.2 million

Harvard

15

$6.2 million

NYU/Mt. Sinai

14

$5.8 million

Washington
University (MO)

12

$5 million

University of
Michigan

12

$5 million

Scripps

11

$4.5 million

University of TX,
Dallas

11

$4.5 million

Yale

9

$3.7 million

Total

134

$55 million

These ten facilities alone wasted $55 million on 134 potentially
duplicative projects in only two areas of experimentation. When the over
1000 research facilities in the U.S. and the dozens of areas of possibly
duplicative research are considered, the potential for the waste of both
federal funding and animals’ lives is staggering.

Statistical Highlights

Ø Research Duplication Waste in only two areas of $817 million
annually in addiction and neural information processing research.

Ø $495,600,000 spent annually by the federal government on 1200
grants regarding drug and alcohol addiction experiments in rats, mice
and macaque monkeys.

Ø 10 universities wasted $55 million in only two areas of duplicative
research in one year. When this concept is expanded to cover all labs in
all areas of experimentation the waste is likely in the billions.